bookmark these genealogy sites and tools

7 Sites for Your Genealogy Toolbox

Blog, Family History

Have you bookmarked these free genealogy sites?

Of course we all have our favorite sites to retrieve the records that let us fill in the blanks on our family trees. Eventually, though, you want to go deeper and learn more about the people and their communities. Here are some of the best free genealogy sites in my toolbox.

Your First 10 Minutes of Online Research

Since you already heard about free genealogy sites FamilySearch, the US GenWeb Project, and Cyndi’s List, we won’t include those in the seven.

A Day in the Life

Chronicling America « Library of Congress: It’s possible everyone else has known about the Chronicling America project for a long time, and I’m the last to know. That’s okay. Free searchable online newspapers for tons of US cities? I’ll take it.

Day of the Week Calculator by Ancestor Search: Since historic newspapers often recount events by day of the week, it helps to know both publication date and day. However, the date header doesn’t always include both. This nifty calculator returns the day when you plug in the date.

IPS – Record of Climatological Observations: Historic weather records become especially relevant when you’re ready to write your family history and you need setting details. Want to know if your great-grandparents had rain or shine on their wedding day? Here it is! (Special thanks to Sheryl at A Hundred Years Ago for finding this one! Her instructions on how to use the site can be found here: How to Find the Temperature on Any Date in Any City in US.)

Faces & Places

Free genealogy family history photo search by surname – Dead Fred .com: Honestly, you probably won’t find a photo of your favorite ancestor. But I dare you to resist trying. You can search by name or location. Go on, go play a while. I’ll be here when you get back.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: Locating your ancestor’s property on a historic map is almost as exciting as finding a photo. (Probably more significant, too.) This collection contains over 42,000 historic maps and images.

Ready to write?

We won’t count this in the seven either, but when you’re ready to share your research and tell your family’s story, visit my post 57 Tips, Angles, and Prompts for Writing Your Family History for inspiration!

Not technically free genealogy sites, but…

eBay: I’m not a big online shopper at all, but I’ve been known to spring for historic postcards on eBay. Try looking through Real Photos Postcards for slice-of-life, or search the US States, Cities, and Towns collection to imagine places as your ancestors saw them.

Wikipedia: Even though Wikipedia usually gets a bad rap, I love it for where-and-when timeline of military missions and battles. When you find details like Regiment/Company or Squadron, plug them in for an up-close look at your ancestor’s experience.

Bonus!

Hey, cousin! If my chatter about researching southwestern NY or northwestern PA brought you here, check out these resources!